


Mercy

by The_Dancing_Walrus



Category: DCU
Genre: Earth-3 (Crime Syndicate Universe), F/M, Grief/Mourning, Mistaken Identity, Serious Injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-24
Updated: 2013-03-24
Packaged: 2017-12-06 09:25:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/734110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Dancing_Walrus/pseuds/The_Dancing_Walrus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mercedes Graves briefly mistakes Alex Luthor for Lex and ends up hearing all the things Alex never got to tell his Mercy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mercy

_It happens so fast._

_Then she’s shooting and kicking her way through them. To get to him. To protect to him. To-_

_She’s almost beside him by the time she realises that this is wrong. That he’s the wrong one, the mirror image not her…….(her what? Master? Lover? Employer? Saviour? She isn’t even sure anymore-)_

_She stops, freezes in the middle of a battle field, which is oh so wrong and her instincts scream belatedly and-_

_Her mouth drops into a perfect and horrified circle as he falls for the same trick she did._

_He lunges forward to protect another woman, her own mirror image. She sees-_

_And he would never do this for her, at least……….. At least the one she knows wouldn’t. But this one, this reflection, dives in front of her, pushes her roughly out of harms way._

_Takes a bullet for her without even thinking about it-_

_She sees him fold._

_And she can’t be thinking either because the gun is going off in her hands, again and again and again._

_She stands over him when he falls and fires until a red streak rushes through the room impossibly fast and sweeps their enemies away like a wind._

 

000

 

“Hello Mercy.”

 

She was surprised that their voices were the same and then realised how stupid that was.

 

“Hello Leh-” She began but she caught herself in time.

 

“Hello.” She corrected.

 

He snorted and his eyes, which were exactly the same green- flicked away from her to the corner of the hospital room. She guessed that he was annoyed with her, angry that she’d mistake him however briefly for someone else. It made her smile because it was so like……..both of them.

 

“They’ve handcuffed you to the bed.” She observed.

 

He glanced at the restraints and probably dismissed them as a minor irritation, stupid arrogant _man_ that he was-

 

“They think I’m going to check myself out, hunt down the person behind this and…… make them pay.”

 

“You can’t have healed yet-”

 

His eyes focused on hers and his dark eyebrows sank into that familiar scowl. Except she was thinking of another man, she’d never seen this one glare before.

 

When he spoke she recognised his tone as well, anger may be or frustration, as though she’d said something stupid again.

 

“I’ve fought Kryptonians and Amazons and Power Rings while I was in the middle of chemotherapy, Mercedes.” He said as though she should have known.

 

“I’m not-”

 

“I know.”

 

He surprised her by smiling. “You’re a lot like her.”

 

“You-” She faltered and stared down at her feet. “You look like him too.”

 

“That’s not what I meant.”

 

He sighed and slouched back against the pillows. It occurred to her that he was probably more bored than irritable; he never could stand inactivity-

 

“You’re loyal and brave.” He grinned at her. “And you always had more common sense than me.”

 

“What do you-” She trailed off when he continued over her in a tone she’d never heard before, a tone that was almost kind.

 

“You’re stubborn, determined. You are one of the most capable allies I’ve ever been fortunate enough to have. You’re definitely the best shot. You’re patient. You’re strong, formidable-”

 

He smiled while she stared, dumbfounded by his list of virtues.

 

“You know where I come from there’s a drug called the White Mercy. Crane studied it for a while. It makes you think all your dreams have come true……and then you wake up.”

 

It took her some time to piece sense out of what he said. _A drug that made you think all your dreams had come true-_

 

“Why are you telling me this?” She couldn’t help asking.

 

_And then-_

 

“Because I never told her.”

 

_You wake up._

 

She closed her eyes. She wanted to tell him that she was sorry, but knew it would only offend him.

 

“She went down fighting. My Mercy.” He offered and she wondered how she could ever have mistaken that small sad twitch for a smile.

 

She stayed silent, because anything she could have said would have been to her Luthor not to him.

 

And just like that he was stern and serious again.

 

“You’re not her, and I’m not going to insult you by trying to hire you or…….talk you round to my side.”

 

She smiled. “Thank you Mister Luthor.”

 

He smirked briefly at her sarcasm. Then he was solemn again.

 

“Mercedes…… Don’t get caught up in his war. I know you’re loyal to him, you might even be in love with him but you’ll get yourself killed.”

 

“Lex-” She began.

 

“It’s _Alex_ , Alexander. Do you think I’d last two seconds around the Jokester with a nickname as childish as _Lex_?”

 

He’d probably meant to make her smile but she shivered. Because he was thinking of a good hearted clown, a man who propped up their ragged band of heroes, who taught them to laugh away their fears: she was thinking of a smiling monster who’d used her as a human shield.

 

He’d sighed. “I know you probably won’t listen to me. But I’d like to think that there’s at least one world with you still in it.”

 

He wasn’t her Luthor.

 

She left.

 

000

 

_It happened so fast._

_They’d had to blast a way out for the people, the- the slaves those bastards had kept locked under his city. The quickest way, the safest way had been under the harbour, through into the old lead-lined sewer system and out in a hundred different places into the streets. He’d set up a tunnel of force fields but the pressure……he hadn’t had enough power, hadn’t had enough time-_

_‘I’ll catch up.’ She’d said and like a fool he’d believed her, because his mind had been on a hundred other things._

_Then half way through the bay he’d felt the earth shake-_

_He heard her gun go off again and again and again through the communications system-_

_He wondered briefly when he’d last cried and realised it was decades ago at his sister’s funeral-_

_He’d guided the people through to the sewers and out into the city. He’d waited silent and listless until the Jokester found him._

_Then he pushed his grief aside, locked it away in a dark part of his mind with all the other murders he’d seen and the few he sometimes wished to commit. Because he wasn’t alone. Because there were other people depending on him. Because he believed in a better world._

_Jackie surprised him into laughter, he started planning, talking through battle strategies-_

_And the world moved on._

_Without Mercy._


End file.
